Filippo Scroppo Biography
Filippo Scroppo (1910 - 1993) was born in Riesi (Caltanissetta) in 1910; in 1934, after stays in Rome and Florence, he settled in Turin, where he graduated in Literature and pursued his artistic, cultural and ideological interests. After the war, having renounced his theological studies, his commitment was expressed in writing, painting, which became his main activity, in the organization of cultural events and in teaching. From 1948 to 1980 he taught at the Accademia Albertina in Turin, first as a collaborator of Felice Casorati and then as a teacher at the Free School of the Nude. His brief experience as a gallery owner is also relevant: in 1957-58 he directed the Turin gallery Il Prisma with Luciano Pistoi. Since the post-war period he has intensified relationships with writers and intellectuals (including Italo Calvino, Primo Levi, Massimo Mila, Cesare Pavese, Edoardo Sanguineti, Elio Vittorini) and artists (including Piero Dorazio, Gillo Dorfles, Renato Guttuso, Bruno Munari, Enrico Prampolini , Atanasio Soldati, Giulio Turcato). He is an active protagonist of the national artistic scene. He exhibited at the Venice Biennials of 1948 and 1950, and at the Roman Quadrennials of 1948 and 1951. With Casorati, Menzio, Galvano, Mino Rosso and Italo Cremona he founded the Turin section of the Art Club, becoming its secretary. In 1949 he organized with Casorati (president) and Enrico Prampolini the 1st International Art Club Exhibition in Palazzo Carignano, in Turin. In 1951 he participated in the exhibition of Abstract and Concrete Art at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and in the selection of Milanese and Turin Abstractionists at the Bompiani Gallery in Milan, with a relaunch the following year at the Gissi in Turin. For the occasion he published the so-called Manifesto of Concrete Art of Turin with Biglione, Galvano and Parisot. From the 1960s to the 1980s, there were numerous solo exhibitions, national awards and participation in foreign exhibitions representative of contemporary Italian art. At the same time, historical exhibitions are organized which bring analytical attention to aspects of the local and national artistic history of which Scroppo was an interpreter: Concrete art in Turin, Sala Bolaffi, Turin 1970; MAC in Turin, Cologne 1981; Art in Turin 1946-53, Accademia Albertina, Turin 1983; L'Informale in Italia, Gallery of Modern Art, Bologna 1983; Concrete Art Movement 1946/52, Civic Gallery of Modern Art, Gallarate 1984; Alliterations - Ten artists of the MAC between yesterday and today, Torre del Lebbroso, Aosta 1987; Scroppo MAC period, 1948-54, Galleria Sant'Agostino, Turin 1988. He died in Torre Pellice in 1993.
